Getting help from ru-ok?

If you need help

If you're under 18 and live or go to a school or college in Brighton & Hove, you can contact us directly for advice and support on drugs, alcohol and sexual health.

We also accept referrals from parents, friends, teachers, social workers, GPs or anyone who is worried about an under 18’s drug or alcohol use or their sexual health. However, we need your consent before we can work with you.

If you have been referred by someone else

We know that it’s better to work with you before your choices become too problematic. For this reason, some of our partners in health, the police or education may send us your details and ask us to see you.

We have some commonly used routes that include:

• School - your school will ask us to contact you if you have been excluded for a substance-related matter or if staff are concerned about your sexual health
• Hospital - if you attend A&E due to drugs or alcohol, the hospital will let us know and we’ll invite you to an appointment
• Police - if you commit a drug offence, the police are likely to refer you to us for an assessment. Find out how the law affects you
• Social workers in the Front Door for Families team may ask us to contact you if there are concerns about your substance use or sexual health

Find out what happens after we get in touch and the services we offer.

Get help for someone else

Anyone can make a referral, including:

• parents and carers
• schools
• social workers
• health care professionals

If the young person does not want our help, we can still offer advice to the people who made the referral to help support them. If you’re not sure whether to make a referral and would like to talk it through, please contact us.

Refer someone to the ru-ok? service